Nigeria’s women’s football team receives hero’s welcome after winning continental title

Nigeria’s women’s soccer team received a hero’s welcome in Abuja on Monday after winning the Women's Africa Cup of Nations. The Super Falcons' comeback 3-2 victory over host Morocco in Saturday’s thrilling final was applauded by Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu and many in Nigeria, a soccer-loving nation where passion and hard work often triumph over institutional challenges.

Tinubu hosted the triumphant national women’s soccer team on Monday. The Super Falcons won their record-extending 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title after braving institutional challenges.

The team had been owed match bonuses for years, once resulting in a training boycott in 2022. Even as they triumphed on the way to the finals in Morocco, the backlog of payments was only approved by the president days before Saturday's final.

They also could not hold competitive friendly matches and their training kits were said to not have been available. It is a common problem in Nigeria where sporting competitions are often dogged by issues of underfunding, corruption, and mismanagement that have led to high-profile scandals resulting in athletes choosing to represent other countries in protest.

The Nigerian women’s team has exercised a near-total dominance in African soccer, which is partly credited to a head-start in the women’s game. Nigeria created the first soccer league for women in 1978, years before their counterparts on the continent.

However, the gains have not catapulted the team to similar achievements on the global stage in what analysts say is a failure of the authorities to capitalize on this early advantage.